European Roma

Eve Rosenhaft is Professor Emerita of German Historical Studies at the University of Liverpool. She has held fellowships and visiting professorships in Britain, the United States, Germany, and South Korea, and has led major funded research projects on Black German and Romani history. She was co-PI on the AHRC–DFG funded project Romani Migration between Germany and Britain (1880s–1914): Spaces of Informal Business, Media Spectacle, and Racial Policing. Her recent publications include ‘Information and Mobility: Migrants and Roma as Historical Cases’, in The Routledge Handbook of Information History, ed. Alistair Black and Toni Weller (2026); ‘Romani Berlin: “G*psy” Presence, the Culture of the Horse Market and the Shaping of Urban Space 1890–1933’, European History Quarterly (2022); European Roma: Lives Beyond Stereotypes (2022). María Sierra is Professor of Contemporary History, University of Seville.

• Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Contributors General Introduction by Eve Rosenhaft and María Sierra Section One: Politics Introduction: The Spaces of Politics: Roma Experiences of Citizenship by María Sierra Chapter 1 Helios Gómez: To be Roma in the Revolution by Juan Pro Chapter 2 The Long Road in Search of a Tzigane Language: Sandra Jayat by Begoña Barrera Chapter 3 Ronald Lee: Discovering Romanestan between Canada and Europe by Carolina García Sanz Section Two: Economic life Introduction: Travelling and Trading – Romani Horse Dealers in the Making of Europe’s Economic Multiculture by Eve Rosenhaft and Tamara West Chapter 4 Intersecting Lives: The Brough Hill Fair as Biography-in-Pieces by Tamara West Chapter 5 “Invaders” – Mobility and Economy in the Lives of the Laubinger Family by Eve Rosenhaft and Tamara West Chapter 6 The Florians, the Habedanks and the Horse Fair at Wehlau by Eve Rosenhaft Section Three: Music Introduction: The Space for/of Romani Music by Anna G. Piotrowska Chapter 7 Romani Virtuosi – A Multifaceted Portrait by Anna G. Piotrowska Chapter 8 From the History of the Lăutari in Romania by Anna G. Piotrowska Chapter 9 The Story of Corroro, a Musical Genius from Kraków by Anna G. Piotrowska in collaboration with Paweł Lechowski Section Four: Circus People and Showmen Introduction: Romani Groups in the Public Space of the Circus and Other Showgrounds by Malte Gasche Chapter 10 Travelling Cinema: When Roma Put the World within One’s Grasp by Laurence Prempain Chapter 11 From Where They Were: Resistance by Romani Circus People during the Second World War by Laurence Prempain Chapter 12 Cowboys and Indians: Wild West Shows as Portals to Exotic Otherness and the Big, Wide World by Malte Gasche Afterword by Beatriz Carrillo Bibliography Index

'This is an outstanding collection of studies which demonstrate that European Romani groups historically made significant contributions to our common past as artists and activists, traders and musicians, mobile entertainers in circuses or pioneers of travelling cinema. Without hiding the effects of stigma these people suffer or downplaying the tragic consequences of the genocidal regimes of the twentieth century, the authors show that Roma were far from being passive victims of the societies they are part of; they pursue and succeed to realize their own ambitions. Some of the fine biographies in this volume remind us that even from a disadvantaged social position Roma acted also as cultural agents for the broader society co-producing European history.' László Fosztó, ISPMN, Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities